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Ford has reconfirmed that a Hybrid Bronco is coming. A little more color below.
After Gutting Its Car Lineup, Ford to Hybridize Bronco and Other Trucks and SUVs
Ford dumped the Bronco SUV from its lineup 22 years ago. Now, in hybrid form, it could be the exemplar for how the automaker hopes to grow its business in America.
In light of the automaker’s bombshell announcement that it will mostly transition out of the passenger-car business, the company will need to apply its EV and hybrid efforts to trucks, SUVs, and crossovers.
The 2020 Ford Bronco is one of several models for which Ford has now confirmed a hybrid variant. The Bronco promises head-turning design and a hybrid version that doesn’t sacrifice truck toughness, and it should make an intriguing mashup of old and new. The Bronco going hybrid isn’t as shocking as it might have been a year or two ago; it’s nearly a competitive necessity. The Jeep Wrangler is already hybridized in four-cylinder form, and by the time the Bronco reaches the market, a Wrangler plug-in hybridwill have arrived.
Ford last month said that it aims to increase its SUV sales by 20 percent, discussing plans to offer eight SUVs by 2020. Five of those models will offer hybrid powertrains, and one will be a battery-electric vehicle. The company has, at various times, confirmed hybrid versions of the F-150, Mustang, Explorer, and Escape as well as the Bronco. Plus, based on outside reports, hybrid versions of the Ford Expedition, Lincoln Navigator, and Lincoln MKC are all expected around 2020. Among these, several are likely to be plug-in hybrids, but Ford has also suggested the possibility of an onboard generator system for the F-150 hybrid, a model that could share its hybrid design with the Bronco.
The Bronco will be heavily based on the Ranger pickup, so that could open up another hybrid possibility that Ford hasn’t discussed yet. Ford once had one of the strongest-selling hybrids on the market with its Escape hybrid; a new version of this nameplate could inherit some of the recent upgrades given to the Fusion Energi, which has no long-term future, and the already discontinued C-Max Energi.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a...to-hybridize-bronco-and-other-trucks-and-suvs
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